Criminal Minds
by hayleystart
Summary: When a new agent arrives from just graduating from the academy, how will the others react?
1. New Agent

**I realize that it is short, but bear with me, i havent had a lot of time to write it. I will add more longer chapter soon!**

**Review it please! And TY**

**-Hayley**

I walk into the semi-warm building at ease. Don't want to seem too eager for my new job as a FBI Profiler. My clothes give it away though. Damn.

As I walk into the elevator, I actually start to get nervous. I never get nervous! The only time I have gotten nervous was at the academy with the final test. I am not so great with meeting new people, so that I probably why. This BAU better be all its hyped up to be. Being 25, I hope I am not the youngest person in there.

The elevator stopped at the 16th floor. I already hear the business of this floor rushing through my ear drums. My boxes seem to get heavier and heavier by the second.

The door opens and tons of agents are working hard. That is good to see! I try to find one busy body not working while sitting at their desk, and I finally find one half way down the section I am walking through. I see this woman sending emails at her cubicle. I guess I startled her a little bit when I put my things down at the desk behind her to let my fingers have a rest.

"Hi! Can I help you?" Her voice was normal. Her dark black hair matches her dark eyes. I couldn't get a word out after she had set eyes on my boxes. "You're the new agent, huh?" She holds out her hands. "I'm Emily Prentiss."

"Hello. I'm Cate Lewis" I say as I smile. She smiles back

"Right! That was the name. We were wondering when you would show up. You are early for your orientation by the way."

"Oh I'm sorry! Was I supposed to call him? I couldn't get through the line. It was so busy..." I kept rambling. God, I hate being nervous. I just talk, talk, talk, talk, and talk.

"It's quite fine. I'll just buzz him right now. You can start heading up there. It's the first office right up the stairs." She said as she picked up the phone and started to call our boss.

I nodded and headed up there, carrying my heavy ass boxes. Walking up these couple of stairs was actually quite difficult. I lost my balance a little bit, but I felt hands at my waist before I could fall over.

"Careful there." The voice said.

Hmm… Sounded cute. Better be!

"Thanks!" I turn around trying to peak through my boxes. "I'm Cate. I'm the new agent."

He had a messy hair cut. Cute and short. His tie was purple, and he was a jacket, along with his black pants and miss-matched socks and loafers. He was young, too! YES!

"I'm Dr. Spencer Reid." He tried to shake my hand, but since I had none available he didn't.

"You can let your hands go now. I think I'm safe," I said with a tiny chuckle. I don't believe he realized that his hand was still on my hip side.

"I'm sorry!" He felt embarrassed. I could tell.

"It's really fine, Dr. Reid." I smiled, and he felt assured after that. He then put both of his boney, long hands into his pocket and started to walk the way I came from.

"Nice to meet you!" I loudly said. He turned around and waved his hand, then kept on walking. I walked about 50 feet or so to a half-open door. I opened it a little bit to see Mr. Hotchner sitting in his comfy chair, hunched over on his desk talking on the phone, while searching for some papers spread wildly over his puny desk. I was patient, so I coughed a little loudly so he could notice that I am here with 5 boxes covering my small hands. He saw me after that and quickly got off of the telephone. He saw how many boxes I had in my hands, so he grabbed 3 of them and set them on the ground.

"Oh. Sorry for that. I was helping out a case." Mr. Hotchner said as he reassured me he didn't forget I was coming today.

"It's fine. Thanks for the boxes by the way." He nodded

"So you're Cate, correct?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Aren't you a little young," he said while he grabbed the boxes again and started to walk out behind me.

"I am twenty-five sir. And isn't that Reid guy young too? He looks about twenty-eightyish." I said while I followed him to my new office.

"True. And he is twenty-eight. Good job." It didn't take long until we reached my office.

It was cold and neat, just the way I asked. Being in a cold room helps me concentrate better. We both set the boxes near the door on the inside as I cracked my knuckles. That Emily girl came in. It looked important because I saw her running towards us.

"Sir. A serial arsonist escaped." Emily said urgently.

Mr. Hotchner looked at her then looked at me. "Ready for your first case?"


	2. Escaped

**This is my second chapter to my multi-chapter story! I still need a name for the story people! Suggestions!**

**ALSO: please review my stories. I know its not much, but its highly helpful to me :)**

**-hayley**

'Sweet,' I thought, 'just got here and my first case already!' I looked at Mr. Hotchner, who has already booked it out of my office like Emily has. I quickly did the same. I followed them and some more agents into a conference room with a slide show already going and some I-PAD's down on the long oval-shaped desk with chairs surrounding it. In there already was some blond-haired girl, looked about early thirties to me, with black pants and a white shirt to go with it. She was standing there, waiting for everybody to show up.

There was this muscular dark chocolate man sitting down across from me. Not bad looking If I do say so myself. He glanced at me real quick then glanced back at the blondie. I know we had no time for small chat, so I did not ask any questions. A second later entered a rushed Dr. Reid and an older looking man with black and grey hair. He had a suit on. Snazzy. Emily and Mr. Hotchner were already sitting down and looking through the pictures onto the large squared devices.

"Tommy Wheeler has escaped from a mental hospital outside of Lexington, Kentucky." She went through a couple of previous pictures from what the creep had down to houses and to cars with people in them. Then she should pictures of burned bodies. "He was last seen at a gas station in Berry Township last night around 3 AM. Nobody has seen any trace of him since, but he will be acting up soon since he bought 3 red containers of gas."

"Does the Lexington Police know where he's heading to," asked Emily as she looked through more photos of the burnt victims.

"No. And since he has no living relatives or loved ones left, the trails ends."

The grey man asked a question next. "How could he have escaped? The prison is highly surrounded by guards and cameras everywhere."

"The guards said that Tommy said he was getting sick and started to hyper-ventilate and pass out about every day, so they took him to a hospital, where he later escaped."

"Do we have any videos of him at the hospital or even at the prison or him passing out?" Asked the dark man.

Man, I should really get people's names before I start a job somewhere.

She shook her head.

"Well," replied Mr. Hotchener, "It won't be too long before he starts up again. We better get going." Everyone then started to get up from their chairs, carefully pushed them into their place and walked out.

The blond girl started walking up to me. I don't know why she walked up to me with a smile on her face after seeing all those burnt corpses, but she did.

"Welcome to Quantico, Cate. I'm Jennifer Jareua. I discuss the profiles of the unsubs to the press and media." She shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you. Nice way to start off your first day of work, right?" I chuckled. Why the hell did I laugh? This is not a laughing matter, no matter how odd it is. God… I'm rambling again.

"We put him away last time, time to get him again." She then walked off, with me traveling behind her.

"So who were the two other people in the room? I haven't talked to them yet."

"Oh. That's Agent Derek Morgan," as she pointed to the nice buff man. "And that's Agent David Rossi," as she pointed to the older looking one. "I don't think that they knew you were coming."

"Nice surprise then." Time to go on the plane!

**PLANE**

I'm sitting next to Emily as she reads a book. I can't make out the title, because it is written in Spanish. I knew I should have taken that in high school. Kiddy corner from me is Reid played poker with Derek Morgan. Looks like he is winning also. I can't see the faces of Mr. Hotchner, nor David or Jennifer. I just sit back listening to my IPod. I am actually listening to poets by Shakespeare. Yes, I am a poet nerd. It didn't take us long before we had gotten to our destination. I hate sitting by the window; makes me nauseous. So while listening to my poetry, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I open my eyes up to see Emily trying to get out. Man! Guess I was asleep, oops!

"Sorry!" I quickly move my legs as she patted my shoulder. Hopefully she didn't care.

I got up after her and followed her off the plane. Somebody already grabbed our briefcases and what luggage we needed to bring along with us, which is not much. It was sort of windy when I faced to the outside and saw the airport. The wind was whipping my hair back, so I had to hold onto it. I saw some policeman walking towards us, older than I would have expected.

"Hello. I'm Officer Sheldon. I spoke to you over the phone." He held out his hand for Jennifer.

"Yes, hello."

"What do you recommend we do?" He didn't know how to handle catching a criminal.

"First, we need a conference room with seven chairs with a white boards, markers and a long table," replied Mr. Hotchner urgently. The officer agreed as we directed us into our black SUV's. I tagged along with Morgan and Reid, while Jennifer, Emily and David took the other one. I sat in the back; Reid was in the passenger seat with Derek driving. I looked out the window as we started to drive away. It took a few minutes before any one started talking.

"So," trying to remember my name, "Cate, right?" I shook my head. "Where did you come from?"

"New York."

"That's cool. I've been there a few times." He couldn't really ask any more questions because he was too focused on driving to our destination.

"So how old are you again?" Asked a curious Dr. Reid.

"Twenty-five. I know, I am so old." They both laughed. Glad I can make them laugh.

"Only two years older than you." He then looked at Derek. "See. I knew we would hire a new, younger agent." Derek shrudded as he didn't want to talk for being too focused. He turned back to me. "I'm from Las Vegas myself."

"Don't the lights bother you at all?"

"Not really. It is actually quite soothing living by the city."

"I know the feeling," I said with a cute smirk. He replied back with a blush.

"Ok talk-a-holics. We are here." Derek Morgan said as he pulled into the closest parking spot to the Police station's entrance.

"We can talk later." Dr. Reid said. I shook my head in response.

We better catch this guy.


	3. Profiling

**Sorry everyone! I have been soo busy it's been crazy! just got a new job and i have been going to for the past month, so ive practially been working non stop! Also, It may take some time to write more stories, as i write everything down first then type it. Hope you like it!**

I walk into the police station behind Dr. Reid and Morgan, while the other SUV pulls up. The building isn't that big. A few desks here and there and a couple of big offices for the chiefs, but other than that, nothing big or new. We stepped into one of the big offices, which has a board filled up with pictures and maps of what this arsonist did. Then came in Mr. Hotchner, Emily, Jennifer and Rossi. We all stood pretty closely next to each other, since the office wasn't as big as it seemed. The officer came up to Jennifer and shook hands.

"Thanks for getting here pretty quickly, Ms. Jareua."

"We tried to get here as fast as we could, Mr. Roger. This is my team. My boss SSA Hotchner, SSA Rossi and Morgan, Dr. Reid, and our newest member, SA Lewis." Replied Jennifer.

Sweet! They can call me Lewis now.

The officer showed his hand for a greeting, and then put it back in his pocket.

Rossi stepped in. "So what happened to Tommy's sister, Tina?"

The police officer couldn't believe that they didn't know what happened. He looked at the other officers standing around. "Didn't you hear? She passes away a year ago. She had a brain tumor. Nobody say it coming."

Poor girl

"Well, she is in a better place now," said Rossi. "So back to Tommy. Nobody saw him escape out of his room? Nobody heard anything?"

"Nobody heard or saw anything. He climbed out of the window, and when the nurse came by for a daily check-up, he was gone. And he also took a map of the town."

"Figures. He doesn't know the place, so now he has a map of places to burn," said Morgan. "Are you sure he doesn't know anybody here? Nobody visited him during his time?"

"Not that I... Well. There were two people actually." He looked at one of the officers and nodded. He came forward. "This is Officer Carlson. He was the first one to the Prison when we heard of his escape. He can tell you the names."

"There was a girl, maybe early twenties. Two men, looked like they were related, and then another male who was probably in his fifties. I only know two of the names. The female's name is Rebecca Prowler, and one of the related man's names was Vick Flores," said the officer. Morgan then took out his phone and called a number. He then put it on the desk, probably on speaker phone.

"Thank you for finally calling me honey bunches of hotness. Your request is my demand!" I have never heard that voice before. Why would he call his girlfriend on the job; weirdo.

"Hey baby girl, we have a few names for you to look up. Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be. Shoot."

"The first name is Rebecca Prowler and the second name is Vick Flores," said Mr. Hotchner.

Rossi said, "Send us all the information on them in the past 2 years related to the Prison where Tommy Wheeler was at. Also, give us any information if they knew him or if he was inflicted with them in anyway."

"I will get right on it sir, and I'll send the info as soon as I find it." She then hung up.

"We will start going to the prison and ask the prisoners and the guards about anything suspicious. Prentiss and Morgan, you two go to the prison. Rossi and I will go to the hospital to see if anyone there could tell us anything else about Tommy. JayJe, Reid, and Lewis, stay here and look through the files that Garcia will send to. "We all shook our heads and headed to our duties.

JJ walked away with the head Chief and the other police officer, leaving me and Reid to look at what was on the board and wait for Garcia's call.

"You are probably wondering who Garcia is, huh?" He wanted to start a conversation, how nice.

"Slightly, yeah."

"Penelope Garcia is our technical analysis. When we need anything on our victim's past, or our unsub's records, we call her up to tell us."

"What an easy job. I wish I was smart like that with computers. I can barely figure out my phone." We both laughed a little.

"So what is your job specifically?"

Man, nobody lies down on the new girl around here.

"Well, I moved here from Chicago. That's where I did my training for the FBI. I trained to be out on the field helping out, and then went onto getting a certificate for medical officer. Then though, why not add a profiler assistant on there. I'm way better at the medical part of my job than anything else though."

"So technically, you're not a full-working profiler? You're just a medical officer with a slight training in the profiler field."

"Technically talking, yes." I shrugged.

"Can you let me do something for a second?"

"Um, I guess." God what is he going to do. He's starting to freak me out a bit. I slanted up against the wall and crossed my feet at the ankle.

"From your posture, I can tell your getting antsy and impatient. And by the way your hair is down instead of up means that you probably didn't have time this morning since you were busy picking out your over-formal outfit and your other outfits for the trip out here. You don't care what other people think since your socks are miss-matched." I laughed, "You laughed because you think I'm funny about saying facts about you, and now you don't think I'm annoying anymore"

"OK smart guy, what else do you got?"

"Well, by your make-up on your face, you have had a pretty easy life. Straight A's, athlete probably, honor society, job off to the side, probably babysitting or something at a hospital. Your mom was the one probably working at the hospital. As a nurse I'm guessing. Your dad could have worked there also. Maybe Doctor or another nurse." I sort of looked away after he mentioned my dad. "And by what I just said, something happened to him. Carr accident? Dying?"

"He left when I was 4." I was still looking down, twitting with my fingers.

His voice sounded very sincere. "Oh. I'm very sorry."

"Not your fault," I replied. "He left when I was 4. My mother drank a lot after that. Ken always had to pick me up after school because my mother would be drunk out of her mind." I looked up at Dr. Reid, and he was sitting down just listening to my story.

"Oh no, go on." He said being interested.

"Well, Ken is my older brother. He is 7 years older than me. Well anyways, he always had to pick me up from school because of my mom. So when we came home, he just made me go into my room for the rest of the day and he went into his as well. No, she never hit us, but she was depressed too. She was missing a lot of work because of her alcoholism. She tried to date, but it was hard on all of us. So she just gave up. When I was a freshman, my father came back into my life. I don't know where he went, and why he left, but we were all glad he was back."

He smiled. "Well that's good. Every family needs their father." He sort of sighed when he said that.

"Should I ask about yours?"

"Well, he left when I was young also, making me take care of my mother who has schizophrenia and anxiety attacks twenty-four seven. So we had a case out there and..."

I cut him off, "Spencer, you really don't have to say anymore, I get it." I smiled, as he did back.

"So am I a good profiler or what?" He boasted. We both just laughed.

Was it just me or was I starting to like his spunky personality? Yeah, I mean, he's skinny and tall. But I don't care if he's buff or tiny, I go for personality. He seems awesome in his cute little dorky way. I mean, I know I'm not perfect. I have wavy hair that never curls or straightens, my family is sort of messed up, and my job is making me move from my hometown to some place where I don't have any friends. I like a guy who can make me laugh, even if I'm upset or mad at something. That's what he does. I don't want to make this into anything more than co-workers, so I'll make sure I don't slip up or anything. I don't want to ruin anything.

"You know," he starts to say as he slid from sitting to stand on his feet and walks towards me. I then stand straight. "You really cool, Cate."

I blush. God I'm lame. "Thanks Spencer. You are too." We both just smile. Then, in a very rushed hurry, I see JJ walk in. We both turn to her.

"Guys. Tommy struck again, we got to go." We all looked at each other for a brief moment and headed out to the SVU that was sitting in the parking lot.

**Let me know if you like my stories so far plz!**

**-hayley :)**


	4. How Many?

**I know that it is sort of short, well, all of these chapters are. I am making them short so i can write more chapters than just ten! So i'm sorry if that bothers any of you at all. Well, i spent a semi-while on this, so i hope you like it! Please review!**

We see an un-used SUV, so I hop in the passenger seat while JJ takes the drivers spot and Dr. Reid gets in the back. It only takes a few minutes to get to the crime scene. It is a super market near the town hall. When we arrive, there are about 3 fire trucks, 6 police vehicles and plenty of bystanders. There are crying woman and men trying to get into the crime scene but the police officers push them away from it all. The firemen and relaxing now after a terrible fight to get the fire down all the way. One looks injured, but not severely. The few ambulances that there is, are available and transporting victims to the nearest hospital. I see Mr. Hotchner comes towards us.

"The store had about seventy something people in it. Only about ten survived," he had gotten choked up on saying that most of them will not make it, "He used what he had done last method: a match and some kerosene."

"When did the fire die down?" Asked JJ.

"About 5 minutes before you arrived. There were already policemen patrolling the streets when one of them saw smoke. It wasn't a lot, but then it escalated quickly, like..." Rossi then walked over with Morgan and Emily.

"Like there were more people involved. There were 6 main puddles of Kerosene involved instead of one. There had to of been more people. One man couldn't do that by himself without being noticed."

"So what your saying are that there are 6 possible unsubs?" I asked. Hopefully that wasn't a dumb question.

"There may be fewer than six, actually. Where were the puddles located at," asked Spencer.

"Two of them up front by the bathrooms, one by the deli section, and 3 in the back," said Emily.

"So maybe we aren't looking for 6 unsubs, maybe about 2 or 3," said Spencer. "Was the main water line shut off again?"

Morgan shook his head. "And there was definitely someone working with Tommy this time. The security tapes didn't catch a thing. It was like someone snipped the electrical cords to them."

"So we're looking for some brains and some brawns here." Explained Emily. "We need to act fast. With both of them working together, or however many, they might have already found another spot."

"Right, JJ, you deal with the press statement. You already know what to say." She shook her head and went off to the cameras. "Morgan, Emily and Lewis, you three go look around the site and see if anything is off of the ordinary. Reid, Rossi and I will talk to some of the victim's families to see if they have any clues about what happened here."

We all went our separate ways. I was behind Emily and she was walking behind Morgan. The store was pretty damaged, more areas in particular. The entrance was a crisp, as so was the back area where all of the storage and the shipments were located. Morgan went by the deli section as Emily and I stayed up front. The rubble was pretty hard to step on, but we managed our grip onto it. She searched the aisles near the registers while I still stayed up front.

Morgan came up back to us. "Nothing seemed strange back there."

"Maybe there is something still up..," I interrupted Emily while she was talking to him.

"Um, guys? I think I found something." I picked up a pile of matches. These weren't ordinary matches. I handed the pack to Morgan.

"These are from a casino in Atlantic City, so whoever did this," he stated.

"Must have been there either the past weekend, or must have just come from there." Emily finished his sentence. "Good work, Lewis."

I smirked. "Just doing my job guys."

"Let's report back to Hotch." Said Morgan. I guess people call me Hotch here. Huh. Way easier than calling him Mr. Hotchner. We all left the store to report back to the team. They wanted to talk to us too.

"Got anything guys?" Asked Hotch.

"Actually, Lewis found this," said Morgan as he handed Hotch the match pack. "From Atlantic city. They must have just been there."

"We found something too," replied Rossi.

"Yes. One of the victim's wives was in the car waiting for her husband to come out with some baby formula. She was in the car with her baby when she heard the explosion. She couldn't really give us much detail because she was still in much shock, but she did give us our lead." Explained Reid.

"What is it?" Asked Emily.

"That it wasn't 6 or 7 unsubs. It was 2. A male and a female."

"A couple."

"Wait! Wasn't one of the people who visited him a female," supplied Rossi as he just remembers the name. "Rebecca Prowler!"

"Let's call Garcia," offered Hotch. He picks up his phone and dials her number. Must be on speed-dial since it only took about a couple of seconds.

"This is Penelope. You have three wishes my good sir, and your first one is?" She makes up clever answerings.

"Garcia, look up Rebecca Prowler again. Look when and where she was in the past week, and where she might be heading to now."

"Ok give me a second sir," she said. Man her fingers are like magic! I can hear them clicking on the keyboard pretty damn fast! "Ok she was at a restaurant in Florida last week Monday and then rented a hotel room soon after. Three days after that went to casinos in nearly every state up to Kentucky. She's spent more than 50 grand total."

"Did it say anywhere in there if she was at the Atlantic City casino?"

"As a matter of fact, she was there for two days in a row."

"Is this our unsub's helper?" I asked.

"Maybe. We need to look into it more. Garcia, look up any more casino's she been to. And look to see if there was anyone with her."

"Got it sir, be back with you in a jiffy!" She hung up.

"So do we just sit and wait or what?" Asked Emily.

"Looks like some of you are going to the casinos."


	5. Coffee Anyone?

**sorry that its been awhile! hope you enjoy it!**

"Okay. Morgan, Reid, and Lewis, you guys can stay here..." Hotch was interrupted.

"Wait a second; I have to stay here with the kids? I don't think so. I need some Derek time."

"Fine, Morgan. You and Rossi go down to the casinos. JJ, and I will investigate the store some more and talk to the victim's families. Reid and Lewis will go back to the police station and investigate there."

"Got it," I said. And then we all went our separate ways. Reid and I went into one of the SUV's, with me driving. Hotch and JJ went into another, and so did the rest.

"Man, some case, huh?" I had asked.

"Tommy Wheeler is pretty dangerous. When we dealt with him, he was in love with his sister and killed anyone who had gotten into his way. He even set fire to a movie theatre filled with innocent people."

God, I felt stupid. Why did I have to say such a dumb thing? "Oh. I'm sorry."

"I just don't understand how he could have escaped. How nobody saw anything suspicious, or out of the ordinary."

"Maybe nobody saw him as a threat?"

"Possibly. Of he must have done something to make himself become an outcast in the prison. I just don't know."

We had arrived at the police station. I was thinking, 'does he ever have any fun?' It looks like he hasn't done anything in a while. "Wait," I said.

He was already stepped outside of the car but his hand still lay on the door handle. "Yeah?"

I patted down on his seat. "Come on. Let's go do something," I said smiling.

"Are you crazy, Cate? We are on a dangerous case with a psychotic serial arsonist who is roaming the streets around here, and you want to do something fun?"

"Well, let's just drive around and see if we can spot him or something else. Ok? Nothing fun. Promise," I claimed as I patted his seat again. He rolled his eyes and sat back down and buckled his seat belt. "You don't need to be so uptight Spencer."

"Work is not all about fun. Work is called work for a reason." I started the car and we took off again. "Are you even listening to me Cate?" I just laughed silently. I like to tick certain people off, it's really funny! I kept on driving to a coffee shop. I've never been here before, and it looked like a quiet a safe place to be, oh, and to look for Tommy and his accomplice. We pulled up and he looked at the coffee place then back at me and shook his head while we both got out of the tiring SUV. We walked in and sat down at a table near the window. He was hesitant at first, but eventually just sat down. He was just staring outside while the waitress came by and I ordered two coffees. Mine black, and then he spoke.

"I want sugar and cream please." Asked Spencer. The kind lady just wrote it down, winked back, and walked away.

"You still mad at me?" He was silent. "Oh come on Spencer, we are watching, and, just taking a tiny harmless break at the same time. Still the silent treatment with this guy. "I'll pay for your coffee and everything. Just talk to me." He glanced at me. "Please?" I gave him the lip quivering and the puppy dog eyes.

"You're lucky that I give in to those eyes." He then blushed. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Ha! I know you didn't. It's okay." I patted his hand.

"So why did you pick this place."

"I haven't been here before. And it's sort of located in the middle of the town" The lady came back with our coffees and I took a sip of mine. "Shit!" Of course it was burning hot. I take the free water that they always give you and gulped it down like no tomorrow.

"You might want to take a second a let it cool down."

"Yeah, thanks Spence. I think I got it."

"Don't call me that." He sounded mad.

"What? Spence?"

"Yes that."

"Why?"

"Why do you ask so many questions?" He took a sip of his water and glared at me.

"Because I can. I'm a profiler aren't I," I said as I copied what he did.

"Touché."

"That's what I thought."

"So are we just drinking coffee or are we actually going to look for this guy?"

"Do we know if he's even here or not? Did he drive back to Atlantic City already or go somewhere new?"

Spencer just shrugged and watched outside. It was pretty silent for a couple of minutes until his phone rang. It sort of startled him and made him jump, then me laugh at his scardyness.

"Hi Garcia, what do you have for me?" I tried to listen into the conversation, but no luck. "Yeah, yeah, uh-huh, are you sure? Both of them? Okay, on our way," then hung up.

"What? What happened?" I asked in a hurry.

"They found them. They went back into Atlantic City right after the fire." He sounded surprised.

"So they kill fifteen people in two days, and then drive so fast back down to the casino?"

"Basically." He took another sip.

"Umm, didn't you tell Garcia that we should get back?"

"That's right. We better get going back to the station."

"Right."

We left and he drove back this time. I had gum in my pocket, and offered him some. He took the piece, as did I, so we wouldn't get in trouble for a quick little coffee break. It didn't take long for him to reach the station.

Hotch asked, "Where did you guys go? You smell like coffee shop."

We looked back at each other. "Well, we stopped in there and asked the cashier if they have seen anything and gave them a flier of the unsubs. We did that to a lot of places downtown."

"Well good job. They were at the blackjack table. They had a room there that was paid in advance so they had a place to stay. Not very smart," said Rossi.

"Back to Quantico?" Asked Jennifer.

"Yup. And thank god, I'm tired." Said Emily.

I despise planes. Hate them with a passion. I'm sitting as far away from the window as possible, and the end of the row, looking up. I would rather fight off a thousand bears than to fly six feet. That's how much I hate flying. I twitted my fingers in the hope my brain would calm down before I barf everywhere.

"How you holding up," asked JJ. She sat in the empty seat in front of me. I look at her.

"How can you guys like flying everywhere? I would try my hardest to just get on a fast train or something."

She laughed. "You get used to it after a while."

"I don't think I ever will." I look down the aisle to see Spencer playing chess with Morgan. He's obviously winning because I can hear him swearing like a sailor. Spencer leans back and spots me staring at their game, and he smiles and waves at me. Morgan looks back to see who he did that too.

"Yeah Reid! Way to go!" Yelled Morgan and pushes Spencer's arm. He just blushed and told him to shut up. JJ looks over and shakes her head then sees me blushing.

"Were you guys really at a coffee shop the whole time?" She saw right through me.

"Sorta. It's not like I was trying to skip my job. I mean, there was a serial arsonist strutting the streets! I made sure we sat by the window." She laughed. "What?"

"It'll be our secret."

"Good. Don't want to get fired on my first case!"

"So you and Spence, huh?"

"I called him that and he told me never to call him that."

She laughed, "He hates it when I call him that too."

"Ah. He needs to lighten up."

"Tell me about it. We always try to make sure he's having fun when he's not at work. Or even at work when he's Mr. Encyclopedia."

"I can see that."

"Maybe when we all get back, we can all go out or something."

We saw Morgan pop up from his chair. "I heard 'Go Out'! I'm in." We just laugh at him.

"What about you Spence?" Asked JJ as she peeked her head out.

"I guess." He responded.

"Cate? Want to come with?" She asked me.

"Why not." I smiled.

Morgan doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut. "There ya go Reid! Your girlfriend can come too." Spencer just buried his head in his hands and muffled shut up again to Derek.


	6. Clubbin'

**This is a long chapter for me! Hope you enjoy it! I'll make them do another case next chapter :P Review please!**

Is it weird that I'm having such a hard time to pick out what I want to wear out tonight? I mean these are just my co-workers and friends, right? Not like I'm trying to impress a certain boy genius or anything. Right, right, come on Cate. Get a hold of yourself. He is just a guy who you work with. Sure, his hair is perfect, along with his awesome cheek bones and his adorable brown eyes. And his clothes are cute in his own special little way. I need to stop thinking like this! Relationships in the work zone are probably strictly prohibited. I wouldn't want to jeopardize anything, so I won't try anything. Maybe I should tell them that I don't drink. That is probably a very important detail to say that for when we do go out.

I can't decide between just come casual shorts and a tank top with a sweatshirt, or maybe a short dress. I don't want to try so hard, and I don't want to try less either. Why is this so hard?

I pick out something I never suggested in my head. I'm going to wear some skinny jeans with some high top converse and a sequin top. I don't think I'm trying to hard with that. I would like some attention, so the top would come in handy, but nothing to hook up with. I grab my boho purse and my car keys and headed out the door until my phone started buzzing in my pocket. I saw that Emily was calling me so I our answered it.

"Hey Emily, I'm on my way," I said.

"Well your late!" She yelled. I'm guessing she was at the club already because all's I could hear was screaming and music in the background.

"Nobody gave me a time."

"Well hurry up! We're all waiting for you!"

"Alright, alright, I'm already at my car," I laughed. "See you soon."

"Okay, bye!" We hung up on each other.

I had some sort of idea where this club was since it was only five blocks away and I could hear the heart pounding bass of the music as soon as I got by my car. I drove into the parking section, which was almost filled. I stepped out and the line was soon gone.

"Whoa little girl," pestered the bouncer, "I.D." He motioned with his hands.

"Would you like to see my driver's license or my F.B.I badge?" I playfully said. He just glared at me when I flashed both.

"Oh, um, sorry miss. Go right ahead."

"Thank you," I smiled then entered the club.

It was crowded with people. Young mostly. Around my age more like it. Girls dancing with other girls and guys, practically butt-humping girls too. I mean I remember doing that at college, but now, EW! The club had 3 bars, and they were full of drinkers. So glad I don't have to spend money on drinks that kill my brain cells. Just then, when I'm trying to find my co-workers, my phone buzzes in my purse. I'm searching through my purse and moving all my makeup and other things I don't even know to find it. I answer it and its Emily again.

"I see you!" She yells through the phone. "Your outfit is cute!"

"Where are you guys?"

"Look up!" Geeze, I wouldn't even think about seeing if there was a second floor to this. I glance along the rails of the upper floor and spot Emily and Morgan waving at me."

"I see you, coming!" I saw laughing at her as she hangs up as soon as I said that. I go up the stairs and spot my team sitting at a table by the railing. It was one of those circular tables that can hold like fifteen people. Emily was wearing a short cocktail dress, pure black, with a pair of dangly earrings and a chunky black necklace. Her hair was up in a messy bun and her heels were huge, too! Hotch was wearing a suit, like always. His hear seemed to be messy instead of fancy. Rossi didn't want to come because he thought that he was too old for the clubbing scene. Morgan was wearing a skin tight white shirt with some classic jeans and some tennis shoes. He was drinking a beer, along with Emily. Penelope was in her kooky outfit like always with a big flower in her hair, which was currently dyed a pink underneath color, and her fishnet stockings along with a longer type of skirt and a shirt with a cute kitten on it. She was sipping on her bahama mama, while bobbing her head to the music. JJ was wearing long black dress pants along with a cute top with beads around it. Her hair was curly and half of it was behind her ear, while the other half was lying along her shoulders. I couldn't see Spencer anywhere.

"Your boyfriend is getting us drinks," exclaimed Morgan as he gulped down his beer with a smile.

I blushed. "He's not my boyfriend, Derek, and you know it." I shrugged as the motioned me to sit next to them.

"I ordered you a jell-o shot, if that's ok," asked JJ.

"Oh, sorry, I don't drink."

"Girl you're missing out!" Said an already drunk Morgan.

"Ha-ha! I think you need to lay off the drinks," I suggested. I looked for Spencer around and no luck.

I was talking with the team about how cases were going and when they get free time, things like that. It took about ten minutes for Spencer to show up but I didn't even notice him. He came up behind me and I saw everyone look up at him. I turned around and then quickly stood up. He just stared at me like he's never seemed me before in his life. He looked very handsome. His jacket was actually tighter than his work jackets, and he wore regular jeans this time with some converse as well! His hair was messy and stuck, like he knew what I was thinking about his hair. I could see his eyes looking at me, and I didn't care. In fact, I thought he was hot tonight!

"Am I in your spot, Dr. Reid?" I greeted flirtatiously.

"You can just scoot over if you would like, no big deal," he smiled.

"Give us our drinks!" Said Morgan. Pretty sure that he has had enough, but he is already taking a taxi home, so that's okay. Spencer handed out the shots to everyone, except for himself.

"Where's your shot?" Asked Emily.

"You guys should know that I don't drink," answered Spencer.

Wow. I would never expect that! I thought everyone drank on the team. I know Morgan and Emily drink more than everyone else, but still. I never even began to think that someone else was like me on the team. This just makes him more attractive in my eyes.

"I don't drink either. Who wants my shot," I asked. Emily shot up her hand, so I handed it to her.

"Here ya' go Garcia. You need this more than I do.," said Emily as she handed it to Penelope. She agreed and gulped it down while we cheered her on.

I've never actually been to a club before. I was offered a couple of times, but I declined because I was trying to study for exams at the time. I would have gone, but in my eyes, schooling is way more important than getting drunk and kissing every guy you see in a tight shirt with some biceps. Spencer, he feels like something more. I've only ever had four boyfriends, and they either all cheated on me, or left me for some other girl. Now, I know I'm not a bad-looking girl, so maybe it was my passion for crime and stopping every criminal who comes my way. Maybe they were annoyed by my feelings and actions that they thought that cheating on me with some bimbo who don't care if she hurts some other girl. But Spencer is different, I can tell. He uses his knowledge for good, for helping people and caring for the victims. He cares for everyone as if they were his family. He actually cares. And that's what I like about him. I like his dorkiness at times. I adore his intelligence so I can learn more things from him than the Internet. That's what I like in guys. I could care less for body building, or athleticism; I just want someone to care. That is why I don't want to mess anything up. Like I said, he's special; I can tell.

The team was talking amongst each other, while Spencer and I were chatting it up a bit.

"So are you having fun," I asked him.

"I suppose. I mean I'm not the 'party' type really. I like to just relax." He said. He had asked someone to get us some waters. "I like to just sit down in front of my window and write."

"Yeah! I've read some of your articles while I was in the academy actually. I like about how you mentioned the statistics of women arsonists that take pleasure into their work instead of men arsonists who don't stay and watch it. Very interesting."

"Oh, thank you." Did I see him blush? He came closer and whispered in my ear, since the music was becoming unbearable. "I know this isn't much coming from me, but you look very nice tonight."

Oh great, now I'm blushing. I whispered back, "I appreciate it, thanks. You look very good yourself."

"You're just saying that," he said back.

"Why would I lie to you?" He looked at me and I looked at him. The girls and guys started to get up.

"Come on you two! We're going to dance!" Yelled an intoxicated JJ. Hotch didn't look too excited.

"Actually, I'm going to head home. I need to pick Jack up from the babysitter's," Hotch said while he finished his drink, and grabbed his coat. He said bye to everyone and left.

"His real excuse is because he can't dance," said Emily. "Come on let's go little boy," she said while she tugged on Spencer's arm.

"You two kid," said Derek as he took my hand. We all went dancing. Trying to squeeze onto the dance floor was hard enough, trying to actually dance on it was harder. Being bumped by everyone was pretty hectic. So we all decided to move out of the center on the floor, down to the side of it. Derek was dancing with about four different girls, and he didn't care if it made him look like a man whore. JJ and Garcia were dancing together and laughing the whole time. Emily was just swaying back and forth with a guy whom she just met. I was with JJ and Garcia just dancing my ass off! Spencer was just stepping back and forth with his hands in his pockets a little ways away.

"You should go dance with him!" Shouted JJ.

"I don't think he would want to dance with me," I loudly responded.

"Oh come on C.L! We can all tell that you two have something going on," yelled Garcia and she smiled.

I'm blushing again. "You really think he would dance with me? I questioned?

"Oh for sure! You two are adorable!" Said Garcia.

"I'll go see if he wants to then," I said. The girls were cheering me on. I slowly walked over to Spencer so he could notice me. When he did, his smile grew bigger, as did mine. I shyly put my head down and looked back up. I stopped in my tracks. Some girl started dancing on him. Am I really jealous over that skank? I was more furious than anything! I mean, I liked him, and here he goes, looking at me while he was dancing with some other chick that wasn't me! I, still standing there frozen, watch him dance with some girl. I looked back at JJ and Garcia and they couldn't believe it either. I just waved at them goodbye and started to leave. I walked right past Spencer and he knew I upset. I knew he could have stopped dancing with her, but he still hasn't. I go past Morgan also and he didn't even notice me leaving. I go to the exit, and look back once more to Spencer, who is still looking dancing with the girl.

I wake up at eight a.m. the next morning. I had only gotten a couple hours of sleep, since I couldn't even dream about what had happened last night. I get my coffee and I left my phone in my purse. I forgot I left it in there, so I take it out and see I have seven text messages and three voicemails. They were all from Spencer, and one text message from Derek. I read that one first.

'Hey. It's Derek. I saw Reid dancing w/ some chick last night. Sorry for him. He's been upset about you leaving, so I would call him soon.'

Why would he be upset? It was his fault, so out of my guilt for leaving I look through the unread texts. They mostly sad sorry and for him to call him back for an apology. I just erased the voicemails. I don't need an apology over a voicemail, a text, or over the phone. I need a person-to-person apology. I know I'm getting paranoid over nothing, but he and I both know there was a spark there. He could have said no to her, but he did not. That's what's got me going over the hedge. I don't do revenge either, so I have no clue what is going to happen next.


	7. Stalker

**I realize that this is really short, but bare with me! I am plotting out the next events that are going to happen! Please review :) it really does make my day!**

I swallow my sadness and just deal with it. This isn't the first time that it's happened. I just need to get over him and focus on work. Like I said before, I shouldn't even be thinking boys right now; I have a new job and I need to be my best at it. I gather my purse and put my badge and my gun inside of it, and make sure that my door is closed tightly and to lock every single one of my doors with the three different keys I have on my key chain. I walk down stairs and my phone starts to vibrate again. I notice that the user I.D. says private name private number. I normally don't answer these, but this once I did. I wish I haven't.

"Cate, Cate. Are you there?"

"What do you want Spencer?"

He sounded worried. "I wasn't sure if you have gotten anything I sent you. I left you at least two voicemails and a few text messages."

"I got them," I'm pissed now, "Listen. I honestly don't care what had happened last night," I lied. "I just want to pretend like nothing happened between us, okay?"

"So you do admit that there is something here. I am not just crazy."

Ugh, "I must say that I thought that there could be a possibility, but there is nothing there now."

"Cate I'm sorry- ."

I cut him off. "I don't want apologies, kay? I just want to go to work, act professional, and pretend like nothing happened. Clear?"

He sighed, "Crystal."

"Good," I said as I start up my car. "Now I'm going to the station, see you there." I had hung up before he had the chance to say anything.

Am I being immature about all of this? I mean, I'm trying not to, and it sucks that I am acting like a fourteen your old, but I was genially upset. You should have seen him though. He was dancing with her, looking back at me like 'Oh my gosh, what do I do? Do I dance with this hot ass girl, or do I go talk to my team member? Oh well, I can always talk to her later.' That's how I see it. I could care less if he's sorry, really. You looked at me a total of five times, while still dancing on a stripper-look-a-like, and still have the audacity to consider dancing with me? Ew, no thanks. I am totally over this Spencer Reid drama mama.

I pull into my parking spot around back and head up. I see Emily in the elevator so I start to sprint to catch up to her. She sees me and holds the door for me as I settle into the wide elevator.

"So how much sleep did you get," I pestered Emily.

"Oh, don't go there," she laughed. "A few hours, at the most. I actually had alcohol poisoning."

"See, that's why I don't drink. Nothing good comes from it."

She turned to me with a smirk on her face. "Do you honestly not drink, or are you trying to impress everyone?"

I turned to her. "I honestly do not drink. I can think of plenty of other fun things to do." The elevator stopped on our floor, and it was already busy. At 8 a.m. it was busy. Awesome.

"Well we will just have to tally those later, now won't we," she laughed as we both got out of the elevator. She walked over to her desk and sat her things down.

"We will. I'll hold you to that," I said as I continued up the stairs to my office. I turned on the light as there was a box on my desk. It was rectangular, tiny and black. I set my things in the side of my desk and turned on my work laptop. I looked on the tag and it read, 'To Cate Lewis: From your secret admirer.' I thought that it was sweet for someone to already take a liking to me, but I was here for strictly business. I had to remind myself that every time I had thought about Dr. Reid. I opened it up and it was a human index finger. I freaked out! It still smelt pretty badly, and from the looks of it, it was pretty fresh as well. I ran out of my office and ran next door to Rossi's. I opened the door and he was on the phone with someone. He saw my disgusted face and quickly hung up and rushed to me. I felt like I was going to be sick, so he helped me to the chair in the corner of his office.

"What happened to you?" he asked.

"Someone... someone sent me a human... finger. It's on my... my desk," I barely got out. He told me to stay put and got the rest of the team. Hotch came in and saw my face, then went back to my office.

Why would some creep send me a finger? What was he trying to say, or do? I just don't understand! I remember reading about these things, but I never actually thought that they would send me one. It might mean someone has been stalking me, and wants me to be theirs. I have no idea, and I don't want to have the image of someone's bloody finger on top of my desk.

I could hear Morgan asking one of the workers if they saw who dropped it off. She said the mailman did, like he would with any package that came through. Morgan and Hotch came into Rossi's office to console me.

"When you arrived in your office, where was the package," questioned Hotch.

"It was just sitting on my desk," I replied.

"What did the tag say," asked Morgan.

"To Cate Lewis. From your secret admirer."

"So someone already knows that your apart of the BAU here," said Morgan.

"Is someone after me? Am I in trouble?"

Hotch calmed me down. "No, your fine. But in the meantime, go home. Have you told anybody your address? Have you seen anybody following you home?"

"No, nothing. I make sure nobody is following me."

"Ok, that's good. Morgan, get the team ready. And Lewis, just head back home. We will send some members over there shortly, once we have everything figured out."

"Oh, okay sir." I slowly got up to make sure no blood ran to my head. I left my laptop, and grabbed my purse from the side of my desk. When I looked on top of it, the box was gone, but the stench still followed in its path.


End file.
